About This Image

From a series of actors by Villeneuve. "M. Delaunay (Les Caprise de Marianne)" is handwritten in ink in the lower border of the recto mount. A rich, dark print in fine condition.

Julien Vallou de Villeneuve (December 12, 1795 in Boissy-Saint-Léger – May 4, 1866 in Paris) was a French painter, lithographer and photographer. Vallou de Villeneuve studied with Jean-François Millet, and started his career at the Salon of 1814, exhibiting images depicting daily life, fashion, regional costumes and nude photographs. In the 1820s and 30s he developed an international following for his folio-sized lithographic erotic series Les Jeunes Femmes, depicting racy episodes in the life of young women and their lovers.

From 1842 Villeneuve took up the camera, first producing daguerreotypes and then softly toned salted paper prints from paper negatives of the same subject matter. He moved to Paris in 1850, founding the Société française de photographie in 1854. He was also a member of the Société héliographique. Realist painter Gustave Courbet was introduced to his photographs by fellow artist Alfred Bruyas during the 1850s and used them as source material for his paintings, in particular L'Atelier (1855) and Les Baigneuses (1853). No photographs by him after 1855 are recorded.

Vallou de Villeneuve is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery.

The full name of the actor is Louis-Arsène Delaunay, who was born in Paris in 1826, the son of a wine-seller. He studied at the Conservatoire, and made his first formal appearance on the stage in 1845, in Molière's Tartuffe at the Odéon.

In 1848, he made his debut at the Comédie-Française as Dorante in Pierre Corneille's Le Menteur, and began a long and brilliant career in young lover parts. He became a regular member of Comédie-Française in 1850. He continued to act as jeune premier until he was 60, his grace, marvellous diction and passion enchanting his audiences. In the 37 years during which he was a member of the Comédie-Française, Delaunay took or created nearly two hundred parts.

He retired in 1887, having been made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 1883. He died in 1903.

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